Manufacturers or other organizations may collaborate to produce various standards for devices such as electronic devices. These standards may set forth a wide range of design criteria for a device. The criteria may include physical, mechanical, and/or electrical specifications. In order to conform or comply with a standard, a device typically meets all of the called for physical, mechanical, and/or electrical provisions.
One organization that has been formed to set standards for the electronic storage industry is the Small Form Factor (SFF) Committee. The SFF committee may be found at http://www.sffcommittee.com. One set of standards set forth by the Committee includes standards for small form factor pluggable (SFP) transceivers. These standards include the Small Form Factor Pluggable Transceiver MultiSource Agreement (SFP MSA), the SFF-8074i Specification for SFP (Small Form Factor Pluggable) Transceiver, and the SFF-8472 Specification for Digital Diagnostic Monitoring Interface for Optical Transceivers.
A transceiver manufactured in accordance with these SFP standards is configured to report a signal strength of a received data signal in response to a request from a host. In order for a transceiver to report an accurate signal strength, the transceiver must include sufficient information to account for all variables associated with detecting the signal strength. These variables may include variations in the manufacturing process, changes in the ambient temperature of the operating environment, changes in the supply voltage, and limitations of electronic circuitry used to detect the signal strength. Unfortunately, the process of deriving the information associated with these variables can be difficult and expensive.
It would be desirable to minimize the difficulty and cost associated with generating information that allows a transceiver to report an accurate signal strength of a received data signal to a host.